Jags Jaydon Mickens named AFC special teams player of the week

posted by The SportsRadio 930 Team -
Dec 13, 2017

Jacksonville Jaguars first-year WR Jaydon Mickens has been named AFC Special Teams Player of the Week for his performance in Week 14 against Seattle, the NFL announced this morning. Mickens is now the first returner in Jaguars history to win multiple AFC Special Teams Player of the Week honors and the first specialist since Josh Scobee in 2005 to win multiple AFC Special Teams Player of the Week honors in the same season.

In the Jaguars’ victory over Seattle on Sunday afternoon, Mickens returned a third-quarter punt 72 yards to the Seahawks’ 1-yard line, which resulted in a Leonard Fournette TD on the ensuing play and gave the Jaguars a 24-10 lead. During the third quarter, the Jaguars scored on three consecutive plays from scrimmage – an 18-yard receiving TD by WR Dede Westbrook, a 75-yard receiving TD by WR Keelan Cole and a 1-yard rushing TD by Fournette follow Mickens’ return – becoming the first team since the 2004 Vikings (Week 16) to score a TD on three consecutive plays from scrimmage.

Mickens, who was promoted to the Jaguars’ active roster from the practice squad on Oct. 21, has won two AFC Special Teams Player of the Week honors in seven career games. Mickens’ 72-yard return against the Seahawks was the longest of his career (18 career punt returns) and the fifth-longest in team history, and his 13.1-yard punt return avg. is the second-highest in the NFL among players with at least 10 punt returns. Mickens’ 72-yard return was the longest punt return in the NFL in Week 14. Ironically, Mickens won both awards and posted the two longest punt returns of his career in the two games in which the Jaguars wore teal this season.

Mickens is one of four Jaguars players to win AFC Player of the Week honors this season – joining DE Calais Campbell (4.0 sacks in Week 1), OLB Telvin Smith (10 tackles and INT-TD in Week 5) and CB A.J. Bouye (INT in OT and 51-yard return to set up the game-winning field goal) – and the only player on the team to win multiple Player of the Week honors this season.